In Part 2 of a three-part series of articles on his presidential address, Maurice Buckley examines how engineers can contribute to climate action and sustainability via standards and digitalisation. 

(In the final part of this three-part series, the president elaborates on the cross-cutting topic of engineers in management in addition to how they can influence public policy. Part I can be viewed here.)

One way in which they can is through involvement in the development of standards. Standards development offers a great opportunity to set the threshold progressively higher for the use of reusable or recyclable materials and safe, environmentally friendly processes.  

Engineers and standards

Engineers are great at standards development because of our traits of logical thinking and attention to detail.  A high proportion of standardisation experts around the world are engineers.   

Ireland’s engineers are under-represented in standards development within Europe but where active we are particularly strong with the mix of skills we bring. 

Time and again, I have seen or heard of one of our experts joining a committee and very quickly proving to be a pivotal catalyst in reaching consensus over some difficult issue that had been bedevilling the work for a long time. 

You can get involved in standards at any stage in a product lifecycle. People often start as ‘adopters’, working to existing standards for mature products. A product like the domestic dishwasher, for example, has changed relatively little in the past 10 years. 

There is a whole suite of standards that would apply to a product like this including some 20 standards alone with the word ‘dishwasher’ in the title. You can sell the product in any country recognising those same standards – which is the case in the EU.

‘Fast followers’

The real advantage comes as the individual or company become involved earlier with newer products and turn into ‘fast followers’. They attend meetings, get information early, and move quickly with their products. 

Former Engineers Ireland president Chris Horn has often testified to the importance of participation in standards work to the early development of his company, IONA Technologies. 

By being there on the standards working groups, he got early visibility of the product idea being proposed and could move with agility to deliver those products ahead of the big players in the market.  

Former Engineers Ireland president Chris Horn

A current example is Trinity College Dublin (TCD), which has developed a collaborative robot 'Stevie' to help care for older people. TCD started by adopting existing standards and is now getting involved earlier, hoping to become a ‘fast follower’.

But the most convincing example I can give you is DecaWave, an Irish company, which was sold in January 2020 for $400 million. It makes location chips that can locate a device such as a smartphone to a few centimetres.

DecaWave was founded in 2007 by two UCD electronic engineering graduates, Michael McLaughlin and Ciaran Connell. They worked very hard in the European Telecommunications Standards Institute committees over several years to establish their technology as the baseline for the industry.

Standards are critical to trade, especially for an open economy like Ireland. If you follow the continuing Brexit negotiations, you will appreciate how much weight is put into aligning standards and avoiding technical barriers to trade. 

'Promoting participation in standardisation has been a personal passion of mine for at least 20 years now. Before, during, and since the time I was fortunate to be chief executive of the NSAI'

The EU has spent decades developing harmonised standards linked to New Approach directives as one of the mainstays of the single market and is not going to allow a divergence now if it is in any way avoidable. We have a much better system in the EU than they do in the US and we have great access to it from Ireland.

Promoting participation in standardisation has been a personal passion of mine for at least 20 years now. Before, during, and since the time I was fortunate to be chief executive of the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI).   

The reason I am personally such a strong advocate of participation in standardisation work is not, actually, the standards themselves at all – valuable though they are. It is because of the benefits individual engineers and their companies gain from the participation itself. 

I have given you a few high-tech examples of how this can work.  Let me tell you the more mundane story of how I became involved myself. 

'As we prepare to deal with a changed society post-coronavirus and changed markets post-Brexit, we need, more than ever, to build competitive advantages – and one such advantage is the access to standardisation work that Ireland can offer through the NSAI.' 

While I was busy setting up a printing company in Roscommon, my German partners had developed a photoluminescent safety product we called EverGlow. It was, and still is, technically the highest-performance product on the market and you will have seen it in the floor strip markings on Aer Lingus planes.

It could not get access to the standards committees through DIN in Germany because there were so many companies competing for the few places available. I tried through the NSAI and got straight onto the international working group. That action saved our small company a lot of money.

We were just about to place orders for very expensive extrusion tooling for the aluminium profile, which carried a 45mm-wide safety way guidance strip.

Even though the standard was still two years away from being published, I could immediately see that the experts were going to settle on a 50mm strip width as the norm.  

'Dodged a bullet'

No matter how good it was, we would not have been able to sell our 45mm product anywhere as it would not comply. That tooling was a huge investment for a startup company and, in dodging that bullet, I really gained a personal appreciation for the power of standardisation.

Now as we prepare to deal with a changed society post-coronavirus and changed markets post-Brexit, we need, more than ever, to build competitive advantages. One such advantage is the access to standardisation work that Ireland can offer through the NSAI. 

Engineers Ireland has recognised standardisation activity as a credited CPD activity, and we are facilitating a series of workshops on standardisation over the next year for all of the organisation's Sectors that are interested.

'The marketers wanted sensors so that artificial intelligence linked to the smart meter in the home could recommend which programme cycle was most appropriate to use and at what time of day or night'

It was through standards that I first realised the true impact of disruptive technology. Product technology has always evolved but it occurs now at a faster pace. Digitalisation, in particular, has led to so-called disruptive technology(1) changes where a technology from another field is introduced which radically changes the ground rules. 

Fourth industrial revolution

Engineers Ireland with its broad church of members from different backgrounds is well placed to respond to this phenomenon. At this time of digitisation and the fourth industrial revolution, I want to highlight this advantage to you all. Let me start by telling you the story, which prompted me to mention the dishwasher earlier.

In 2017, I was chairing a seminar in Brussels, hosted by the European standardisation bodies on SCADA(2) – which is about data acquisition and control of devices and processes. At the end of the session, three or four middle-aged men came up to me, looking completely out of place among the young techies.  

They were engineers and experts on a standards committee dealing with dishwashers and other domestic appliances. They had come along to the seminar to try to get a better understanding of the world of digital and they were really struggling.

'There is some fantastic technological innovation happening in our smaller cities and rural towns. Site visits, talks, presentations and meetings with engineers from different backgrounds are all very stimulating and can lead to great cross-fertilisation of ideas in this world of disruptive technology.'

They knew everything that is worth knowing about seals and gaskets, about pumps and motors, about filters and flow mechanics and everything you need to design a really good dishwasher.  

These companies have become masters of their fields by bringing together the different disciplines needed and getting that cross-fertilisation of technical thinking and ideas within their labs. 

Now though, within the space of a year or two, the focus was turning to new areas. The marketers wanted sensors so that artificial intelligence linked to the smart meter in the home could recommend which programme cycle was most appropriate to use(3) and at what time of day or night. Suddenly, those experts were experts no more.

The relevance of this story goes to the very core of what a modern professional body must offer its members in terms of cross-linking technology and expertise from different fields.

New drivers of technological and societal change

How can we help ensure that engineers stay abreast of what are the new drivers of technological and societal change? Digitalisation is the most obvious example but there are several others such as climate action and sustainability, which equally find application across every field of engineering.

We are a very widely based institution and have a great breadth of expertise within our membership base which is a great advantage compared to other technical bodies who have specialised much more. We have our Engineers Journal and our regional structure, both of which encourage a mix and exchange across disciplines. 

'There is some fantastic technological innovation happening in our smaller cities and rural towns'

Engineers Ireland's Regions are in a very good place right now. I have chaired our organisation’s liaison committee for the last two years and seen it first hand. Why is that? 

There is some fantastic technological innovation happening in our smaller cities and rural towns. Site visits, talks, presentations and meetings with engineers from different backgrounds are all very stimulating and can lead to great cross-fertilisation of ideas in this world of disruptive technology.

As part of the Sectors review programme we are looking to strengthen this healthy mix by having active regional branch representation on division and society committees and vice versa as appropriate.

For example, it might be appropriate for the West and Thomond regions to have a representative member on the division representing the medtech and healthcare area as many of those country’s top organisations are based west of the Shannon.

Robotics, cobotics and digitalisation

Though the regional structure and the Engineers Journal are a big help, they cannot on their own address fully the need to provide members with a network to discuss and exchange ideas on the important cross-cutting issues of the day, particularly digitalisation. 

From robotics and cobotics to 3D printing; from artificial intelligence to blockchain, how do we assist mid-career engineers who are the technical decision makers in their organisations to have the best possible insight? 

How do we give them at least a basic understanding of how these and other digital technologies can be best applied in their products and businesses?   

In the final part of this three-part series, the president elaborates on the cross-cutting topic of engineers in management in addition to how they can influence public policy. Part I can be viewed here.

Author: Maurice Buckley, Engineers Ireland president 2020-21, is an electrical engineering graduate from UCD and is the executive chairman of the OPW, where he is leading large-scale investment programmes to improve Ireland’s flood defences and public buildings, both modern and heritage. A Chartered Engineer, he has worked for the Boston Consulting Group in Munich, held senior management roles in industry, and is a former chief executive of the National Standards Authority of Ireland, where he was responsible for the country’s standardisation, certification and metrology activities.

References

1.) Disruptive technology is an innovation that significantly alters the way that consumers, industries, or businesses operate. A disruptive technology sweeps away the systems or habits it replaces because it has attributes that are recognisably superior.

2.) Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA).  A computer system for gathering and analysing real time data, used to monitor and control a plant or equipment in industries such as telecommunications, water and waste control, energy, oil and gas refining and transportation

3.) For example the Siemens iQ700 with Home Connect App for €1329 RRP.   Zeolith drying.  Auto programmes